Requiescat In Pace: Neil Armstrong, First Man To Walk On the Moon

[Cato]

See:

http://www.680news.com/news/world/article/395235--neil-armstrong-who-gave-world-giant-leap-with-his-1st-footprint-on-the-moon-dies

As an Ohioan born in the city of the Wright Brothers and other aviation pioneers (Dayton), I feel more than a little connected to our astronaut (Latin for "Star-Sailor).

[Karl Henning]

I fancy that I remember the deed when it happened (or, the day following). Always admired the man; although I never wanted to do the same thing (even at a tender age, I was overwhelmed with a sense of the dangers), Armstrong was one of my first real-life heroes.

Separately ... at an earlyish age, too, I had to concede that the Russians' neologism (cosmonaut) was better sense.

[Coopmv]

See:

http://www.680news.com/news/world/article/395235--neil-armstrong-who-gave-world-giant-leap-with-his-1st-footprint-on-the-moon-dies

As an Ohioan born in the city of the Wright Brothers and other aviation pioneers (Dayton), I feel more than a little connected to our astronaut (Latin for "Star-Sailor).

My kind of guy - very successful in life and highly accomplished.  Yet he wanted little publicity ...

[Szykneij]

My kind of guy - very successful in life and highly accomplished.  Yet he wanted little publicity ...

I heard on the radio that on the 20th anniversary of the moonlanding, he was approached by a reporter outside his house as he was sealing his driveway. The reporter asked for for an interview and he said, "No thanks".

[Scarpia]

In one of the profiles that appeared after his death was announced I saw an amusing quote.  In an interaction with some students, he was asked how it felt to walk on the moon, and his response was something to the effect that "I'm a pilot and pilots don't take any particular pleasure in walking.  We like to fly."

I guess I am alone in thinking that his refusal to talk about his experiences was not particularly a virtue.  It is a contrast to Sally Ride, who did not seek any particular personal celebrity, but who used the attention she received to encourage more female students to take an interest in science.

[snyprrr]

Here's the conspiracy:

Somehow, the LANCE Armstrong smear campaign and the Neil Armstrong death are connected, though I can't figure out who benefits?!

I tend not to buy the man on the moon thing, but hey, what do I know? Still, the Kubrick/The Shining angle I find interesting. Did they kill the 'Curiosity' landing director Tony Scott?

Hey,... it's Saturday night,... waddaya want?

Modern civ is going to hell in a hand basket and I just don't feel like I've gotten my $$$ worth out of the...uh... 'space' program. All I see is a bunch of minds being programmed. Bomb Iran and get it over with idiots!

military industrial complex indeed

ugh, disgusted


I know, he's practically some peoples' Saviour. Sorry.

If NASA were real, we'd be living in Space 1999 by now. Instead, we're living in Germany @1936. Much as I love WvB, and smuggled nazis, and Operation Paperclip, I... I just ain't feelin' it. Bomb Iran or shut up.

Sorry, Rant: OFF

[Scarpia]

Huh?

[vandermolen]

I was so sad to hear that he had died - even though he was 82.  I was 14 at the time of the moon landing and remember sitting up all night in the TV room (like a cinema with a TV in it!) of the hotel where I was on holiday with my parents in Torquay in SW England. That was such an exciting time for anyone interested in space exploration. Perhaps Apollo 8 (Bormann, Anders, Lovell - I still remember) was even more exciting as we saw the Earth from a long way away for the first time.

RIP Neil Armstrong.

[vandermolen]

I was so sorry to hear this sad news. That period (1968-69) remains a very special memory for me as I was growing up and following the Apollo programme with great interest.

[springrite]

In one of the Chinese sitcoms in the 1990's making fun of an retired elderly party official who was grilling a co-worker:

You have no patriotic spirit, nor love for the working class. I remember when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, you jumped for joy! But when our neighbor the widow re-married, you did not join in the celebration. I remember when Kennedy died, you cried. But when the grandmother of the fella in our boiler room died, you did not even send flowers!

So it was a big deal even behind the Iron Curtain.

R.I.P.

[Sergeant Rock]

Huh?

snyprrr's brain lives in an alternate reality with Mozart-denier Rob Newman.

Sarge

[Coopmv]

He was my kind of guy, so successful and accomplished and yet never liked publicity, very much unlike Americans of the generations that have come after him that are often publicity hound. 

RIP Neil Armstrong ...

[Cato]

snyprrr's brain lives in an alternate reality with Mozart-denier Rob Newman.

Sarge

Perhaps the terrible effects of drinking Mountain Dew...the old-fashioned kind.   0:)

A curiosity: I was in the middle of reading How We Made The First Flight (published in 1913) by fellow Ohioan Orville Wright,  when the news came in that Neil Armstrong had died from the operation.

[vandermolen]

He was my kind of guy, so successful and accomplished and yet never liked publicity, very much unlike Americans of the generations that have come after him that are often publicity hound. 

RIP Neil Armstrong ...

Very good point.